Crackdown on UK Care Home Fees – where do you stand?

UK expats in the UAE have not been surprised to learn this week that qualifying for State aid with UK care home fees remains a patchy old business – not only because care home fees vary so widely depending on geography, but also because tricksters are generally getting away with hiding their assets to get funding. That’s the murky picture from 8 Freedom of Information requests published by the Telegraph – which shows some UK councils failing to prosecute a single relevant case over the last five years.

How do I qualify for state help with my UK care home fees?

If you have assets over £23,250 as a UK citizen, you are expected to fund your own long term care. Below this figure, and your net value entitles you to local authority funding (there are different types). Nobody likes the prospect of going into a care home. But, if you get seriously ill in your old age, it is often the only sensible option. You need to start thinking about funding now, because it can be a huge expense.

When it comes to care home funding eligibility, what crime can UK councils prosecute for?

It is illegal to hand assets and cash onto children, for example, with the specific intention of hiding money in order to cheat eligibility for the £23,250 funding cut-off point. In council/legal jargon, this activity is called “deliberate deprivation of assets” and is prosecutable. (Of course, it is entirely legal to hand assets on to children for other reasons).

The Telegraph confirms that, “councils have powers to claw back money from people it can prove to have ‘deliberately deprived’ themselves of assets to claim state aid.”

What are UK councils doing about enforcing funding eligibility?

Not very much. A snapshot of 8 councils’ efforts to put enforcement into action over the last 5 years reveals a geographical lottery of enforcement; whether prosecutions are made at all totally depends on which UK council is in charge and, even then, the numbers do not inspire confidence – which is a shame, because people successfully making fraudulent claims for UK state aid forces the Government to be more stringent with eligibility – which means that everybody suffers in the long run.

Freedom of Information requests made by The Telegraph shows that Westminister council, for example, has not taken a single claimant to court for deliberate deprivation of assets since 2012; but North Somerset Council, on the other hand, has prosecuted 64 individuals to the tune of £1.3m.

What is the future for council enforcement?

Steven Cameron from care specialists Aegon warns that, “with the care crisis getting worse daily and with more public interest in getting out of paying for care by giving away assets, the attention councils will pay is certain to increase considerably.”

How much is long term care in a UK care home going to cost?

Care home fees can cost anything from £500 to a week (in the North of England) to as much as £1500 (in the South). Just as with council enforcement of funding fraud, care home fees depend on entirely on geography.